Instigated by the artist’s relocation to New York, Steve Locke returned to his ongoing series of cruisers paintings in 2021. Imbuing a sideways glance with eagerness, uncertainty, and risk, these works map the connection between identity, desire, and vulnerability. Saturated in unspoken tension, cruisers paintings capture an intensely intimate—and potentially dangerous—moment shared between anonymous men, who are connected by the act of “looking.” “Cruising is about possibility,” Locke explains. “It’s a site where anything can happen. You can connect or misconnect—and a misconnection can lead to another kind of outcome. It can end in death. It is a private action in a public space. It’s an acknowledgment of beauty. It’s secret but every man knows about it.”
